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It is said that the Chrysler automobile was dreamed and determined by that, tall, husky, pensive resident of Oelwein among the dissembled parts of his 1905 Locomobile, which broadens the thread of romance in the Chrysler career from 1905 to 1924, when the first Chrysler car appeared.
The recent career of Motor-Maker Chrysler has been such a succession of crescendoes that the long overture is in danger of getting drowned out. Particularly in view of the present, climactic movement of Chrysler Motors v. General Motors, it is important to recall that the
Buick company, cornerstone of General Motors, was the first automobile company Mr. Chrysler ever took in hand. He took it in hand in 1911 and had it until 1919. He jacked up its production from 40 cars per day to 550; established its name as a synonym for soundness; increased the Buick profits to 50 millions per annum. During William Crapo Durant's second regime in General Motors (1915-20), Walter P. Chrysler's touch was felt in all General Motors shops, for he was in charge of all General Motors production. But for his difference—not a quarrel—with Mr. Durant, who later was ousted, Walter P. Chrysler would doubtless still be the engineering brain of this gargantuan concern.
Into the three years, 1920-1923, Chrysler packed a decade's experience of the one thing he thus far lacked—automotive finance. He overhauled the Willys-Overland company from hubcaps to stockholders and, in the midst of that task, undertook the same job for Maxwell. After cutting the Willys-Overland debt from 46 millions to 18, he gave Maxwell his whole attention. The Maxwell-Chalmers merger was one step and then the Chrysler Corporation took shape.
It was perhaps an accident, perhaps an earned result, that that cynosure of U. S. attention, the Prince of Wales, visiting on Long Island in the summer of 1924, was reported in the newspapers to be using a smart, little-known roadster on his prankish nocturnal visits; a roadster so little-known and so unusual, with its four-wheel brakes and indirectly-lighted dashboard, that the newspapers felt justified in mentioning its name—Chrysler.
*Chief Chrysler has many an able assistant. Among them: Financial Vice President B. E. Hutchinson; Sales Vice President (and President of De Soto) J. E. Fields: Manufacturing Vice President K. T. Keller. These and others Mr. Chrysler has publicly thanked for their share in developing Chrysler Motors.
†After the 2 ½for 1 split-up, authorized Dec. 10. *Other prophets have placed the figure as high as 5,550,000. Output in 1927 was 3,401,326; for eleven months of 1928, 4,124,225. Estimated 1928 production: 4,500,000. *Chicago's fifth show.